Anyway … I’m teaching a 4-week online class on emerging technology trends over at Infopeople. They do some really nice online classes (mine included 🙂 ). Check them out if you haven’t.

I needed to read through some of my students assignments last night. But of course, that was right around the same time that my internet decided to stop working. And stayed not working for a good 24 hours.

Five years ago, that would have been a problem for me. I would have needed to wait for the next day (and the AT&T technician). Or, I could have gone to a coffee shop or back to the library and their awesome wifi (we really do have awesome wifi).

Thankfully, it’s 2017 and I have a smartphone that lets me tether and use the cell phone signal to access the internet. It’s slower, but it also works. I got my class stuff done pretty much like normal, then went on with my evening (wifi came back on at 5pm the next day).

It struck me that there are multiple ways for me to access the internet. I have options, and have enough tech savvy that I can work aground an issue if needed. I even have a way to connect to the web on me at all times (my iPhone). Or any number of places to get wifi – coffee shops, the library, our local university, Walmart of all places, the mall, etc.

This also made me think just how important it is for libraries to offer some pretty basic services. Yes, having a bunch of books is a basic service of the library. It’s expected. How about wifi? I think that’s also a basic service in today’s modern library. It’s expected. And you need to budget accordingly. Today’s successful library can’t have “just ok” wifi, or wifi that doesn’t really work well (and yes, there are libraries that still don’t have adequate wifi).

I get it. Budgets are hard, and we aren’t always the ones who get to set, approve and pass the final budget. But we are the ones to advocate for it and for our customers.

So don’t just ask for better public internet and wifi. Ask for it, demand it, and back it up with usage numbers. Share data like how many people are using the service, how many are turned away, how often is the system at or over capacity, etc.

And make friends with the people who make those decisions. Turn them into advocates and champions for the library. Why? Because your customers need thosebasic services from you. They expect it. So work to meet those expectations.

Many of your customers depend on the library’s wifi to get stuff done these days. To connect with family, get a job, do research, etc.It’s important. Important enough to not simply offer it, but to do it well.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a request to remove a photo off of my “website” by a rather large public library. By the head of their marketing and communications department, no less.

Why? Because they decided to change the license on their Flickr account from Creative Commons to All Rights Reserved (which is where I found the photo).

Here’s the [edited] email they sent me:

“We are writing to you from [insert public library name here] to let you know about the current license on our photos available through flickr, and we note that you have a [insert public library name here] photo posted on your websites at http://www.slideshare.net/davidleeking/technology-trends-in-libraries-the-emerging-generationÂ and http://www.slidesearch.org/slide/technology-trends-in-libraries-the-emerging-generation.

This will inform you that [insert public library name here] now has a license of ‘All Rights Reserved’ on all its flickr content, including the image you have posted on your site. All previous licenses, including of Creative Commons, are unequivocally revoked, and you are requested to remove the photo from your site within seven days.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter, and we’ll follow up in several days if you have questions about this request. Please email [email protected][insert public library name here] to confirm that you have removed the photo from your site.”

Guess what? You can’t do that with a Creative Commons license. According to the Creative Commons website, CC licenses cannot be revoked. Creative Commons says this: “Once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it” (found here).

Here’s what I emailed back to the library:

“As a reminder, once you use a creative Commons license, that license cannot be revoked – https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Considerations_for_licensors_and_licensees#Considerations_for_licensors

I won’t use the photo anymore, since it appears you have taken it offline (the link no longer works). But per Creative Commons licensing rules, my use of that particular photo was, is, and will be fine and legal, since it at one time had a Creative Commons license.”

So long story short, I won’t use that particular photo anymore. But I’m also not going to sift through a couple of slidedecks that I posted at slideshare.net (i.e., not my website) and remove one particular photo from them. Because the library can’t change the CC license, once given.

And so – a gentle reminder to you about Creative Commons licenses. Creative Commons licenses are great. They allow for easier sharing and remixing, and seem like something libraries should do. We are, after all, all about sharing, distributing, and remixing content of all shapes and sizes.

But think long and hard about applying a Creative Commons license to your content. Because as staff, departments, and priorities change, someone might want to changeÂ those CC licenses too. And you (the people who create and control the content) need to know what’s allowed and what’s not, what’s legal and what’s not, etc.

And a small side note on that legal thing – I’m a librarian, not a lawyer. Do Creative Commons rules hold up in court? Beats me. Hopefully I don’t have to find out!

How about website visits? We had 1,113,146 total visits to the website in 2014. The only larger number is is our circulation count (2,300,865 items).

The busiest part of my library is our digital branch – our website. More visits than meeting room attendance. More visits than library classes and events. More visits than our art gallery.

More visits than our physical building.

I’ll guess your library is similar. So how do we staff for this? I know, I know. Website visits are different than a person visiting the building. Building visitors will most likely stay longer, will need furniture to use, will step on carpet that needs cleaning, and will use computers that need to be maintained. While a digital branch visit might only last for two minutes.

Still – do you see a potential disparity here?

So I’ll ask my question again: Do you adequately staff the busiest parts of your library?